Víctor da Conceição Soares

Víctor da Conceição Soares is an East Timorese politician and academic, and a member of the Fretilin political party. He is the incumbent Minister of Petroleum and Minerals, serving since June 2020 under the VIII Constitutional Government of East Timor led by Taur Matan Ruak.

Víctor da Conceição Soares
Soares in 2020
Minister of Petroleum and Minerals
Assumed office
24 June 2020 (2020-06-24)
Prime MinisterTaur Matan Ruak
Preceded by
Vice Minister for Technical and Higher Education
In office
10 July 2006 (2006-07-10) – 8 August 2007 (2007-08-08)
Prime Minister
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Personal details
Political partyFretilin

Early life and career

Soares has a master's degree in Engineering,[1] and from 2006 until at least 2010 was Dean of the Faculty of Technical Engineering at the National University of East Timor (UNTL).[2]

Political career

From 10 July 2006 to 8 August 2007, Soares was also Vice Minister for Technical and Higher Education in the II Constitutional Government under Prime Minister José Ramos-Horta,[3] and the III Constitutional Government led by Prime Minister Estanislau da Silva,[4] respectively.

He was later appointed as an advisor to the East Timor Coffee Academy (ETICA) (now the East Timor Coffee Institute).[1]

Following a change in the governing coalition, and the admission of Fretilin to the VIII Constitutional Government, Soares was sworn in as Minister of Petroleum and Minerals on 24 June 2020.[5][6][7][8]

Soares took that office intending to undertake a restructuring of East Timor's oil and gas sector, with the objective of improving the quality of the services provided in that sector. Soon afterwards, as part of a new policy of limiting the time that any person would hold a position in public administration, he controversially replaced two long serving executives, Francisco Monteiro as the chief executive of Timor Gap, E.P., and Gualdino da Silva as the President of National Petroleum & Minerals Authority.[8] Additionally, the proposal for the Tasi Mane LNG project was sent to the national audit office for re-evaluation.[9]

References
  1. "East Timor Coffee Academy (ETICA)". East Timor Coffee Academy blog. East Timor Coffee Institute. 18 May 2011. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  2. "Estrutura da UNTL" [UNTL Structure]. UNTL (in Portuguese). Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  3. "II Constitutional Government". Government of Timor-Leste. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  4. "III Constitutional Government". Government of Timor-Leste. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  5. "Swearing-In and organic structure of the Eight Constitutional Government". Government of Timor-Leste. 24 June 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  6. "Structure of the VIII Constitutional Government". Government of Timor-Leste. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  7. "Timor-Leste's Eighth Constitutional Government (updated 17 July 2020)". La'o Hamutuk website. La'o Hamutuk: Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  8. Soares, Víctor da Conceição (20 August 2020). "LETTER: Timor-Leste aims to reinvigorate its oil and gas sector". Upstream. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  9. McDonald, Hamish (5 October 2020). "Sun is setting on Timor-Leste's pipe dream". Asia Times. Retrieved 15 December 2020.

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